After randomly coming across this message board a few days ago I got hooked on the idea of brewing my own beer and quickly went out and bought my first kit. So let me thank all of you for unknowingly motivating me.

After reading as much as I could to make sure I would avoid any beginer mistakes I became confused by directions that I was reading from several different sources. I sealed the fermenting bucket 8 hours ago and when I woke up I realized some of my problems which I hope will not ruin the batch but would not be surprised if they did since the whole process is very delicate.

1. I mixed my yeast in with the original 2 gallons of water that I boiled and then I poured my wort into there in hopes that I would mix it together that way. I now think that i probably shocked the yeast and ruined it.

2. The temp after they both were combined was around 92 which leads me to believe that the wort was to hot and also could have killed the yeast.

3. I forgot to mix and stir everything together thinking that when I poured the wort in that would do it for me.

I used a powder ale yeast that I put in 4 oz of water probably about 60 degrees then I added about 2 oz every couple of minutes of the original water to adapt it to that temp. which was around 80 degrees. The wort was cooled for about 30 minutes down to about 120 I believe.

The airlock is bubbling as we speak and I can here activity inside the fermenting bucket but it is an ale pail so I can' see whats going on inside.

Sounds like your yeast survived and are fermenting away. They are forgiving creatures but you do want to treat them carefully if you want to maximize their survival and make the best beer possible. Welcome to the hobby.

I was using my stove to boil the wort and it took forever to bring the first 2 gallons and then the 3 gallons to a boil so I never ended up finishing until 4:30 am and thats when I became a little to careless. I'm thrilled to here that I am on the right track and thanks for the help.

I didnt stir in my yeast the first time either, i plum forgot about it. The beer ended up tasting great! No worries, however next time you should def. always cool your wort to at least 70-80 F before adding your yeast and water to it.